Long Night's Journey

by Mel Rubi, Brett Matthews, Joss Whedon

Angel, Los Angeles's resident vampire detective, searches for a kidnapped child and stumbles upon a force of unspeakable evil and unimaginable power who has an old bone to pick with Angel.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1569717524
• ISBN13: 9781569717523
• Release Date: August 2002
• Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
• Length: 104 Pages
• Weight: 0.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.2" x 6.6" x 10.3"
• Age Range: 12 years and up

Customer Reviews

What Happened That Night

Reason for Reading: Next in the series. Summary: After the shocking ending of Vol. 1, Vol. 2 leaves us hanging and backs up in time to the first night after the ending of the television series. This book is smaller containing only 3 comics that contain vignettes of all the characters showing us where they ended up that first night, why they are no longer all together and how they came to be in the situations we find them in Vol. 1. Angel himself is not in this volume at all, which is a little odd at first but this book's purpose is to re-establish the other characters, whom we knew so well, with the new turns their character's have taken in Vol. 1. There is also a surprise return of an old character from the series. I was never fond of this person on the show but their introduction here was very exciting and I look forward to Angel's response to seeing this person back in town. The book ends with an art gallery of covers and work by various artists, then an article by Lynch on a few stories they thought of putting in the issues but didn't for one reason or another and then finally ends with a page by page run through of notes for each issue with thoughts on what ended on the page or the ideas behind it. Very interesting stuff. First Night is a quick read and while not quite as OMG exciting as Vol. 1, definitely a great read with wonderful art especially some work by Nick Runge of Amy Acker (stunning!)

Fleashing out the end of the world

Note: this review is for the softcover edition of IDW's second volume of Angel: After the Fall, entitled First Night. As we all know by now, Angel's world may have come to an end, but his story didn't. The second collected volume of IDW's Angel: After the Fall details just how and why the group ended up splitting apart upon Los Angeles going to Hell, as well as details just what happened to them all leading up to the first storyarc. Here, we see just how Wesley came back from the dead, how Connor became such a fierce warrior, and learn more of what lead characters like Gunn, Gwen, Spike, Lorne, Kate, and even a story involving some of LA's civilians. Co-plotters Brian Lynch and Angel creator Joss Whedon manage to flesh things out enough (Wesley's story in particular is the best of the bunch), while the biggest flaw of First Night ends up being the artwork. The legendary John Byrne is on board and does quite well illustrating Lorne's tale, while David Messina and Nick Runge do okay, but the rest of the artwork featured here is largely inconsistent and sub-standard compared to the previously mentioned. That aside though, Angel: After the Fall: First Night does a solid enough job bringing things up to speed, and in that respect alone, if you're a Buffy/Angel fan in the least, Angel: After the Fall is something that is definitely worth your time. It may not have the spark that Dark Horse's Buffy: Season 8 has, but it comes pretty close nonetheless.

Angel, As A Superhero

Joss Whedon helped plot the script, so it's a given that it can't be bad. It's just essential that, before you buy, you know what you're getting into. This trade paperback is an obvious attempt at making Angel a more traditional superhero by including epic fights, big two-page action spreads, and action oriented plots. It was risky, seeing how "Angel the Series" is character--not action--driven, but I do think it worked well. The dialogue is the best you'll get out of an Angel comic (other than "After The Fall," which is in a whole different league), so Whedonites will be glad to know that Cordy's snappy sarcasm and Angel's stoic-yet-slick banter is alive and well in this book. The pace is too fast and they could have easily stretched the story to five issues, but I'm confident that fans of Angel--especially the early years--will love this comic. That's if they can get their hands on it, as it is very difficult to come across these days. Artwise, there was some stuff I loved, some I liked, some I didn't like, some I hated. Hated the inconsistency of Cordy's face. Wes looks about fifty, which is really strange. Also, the colorist really messed up in the last issue. The Big Bad of the comic, an ancient vampire named Perfect Zheng, had a fang knocked out by Angel in the 1920s. In the first issues, he's depicted as wearing a really cool metal fang. Then, in the final issue, both fangs are colored white again as if the whole "metal fang" thing never happened. But overall, the art is really dynamic and carries out the action well. I liked that the themes of the series remains in tact, but I didn't like how much tinkering was done with the mythology. The whole concept of how Angel got cursed with his soul was changed, and that would be fine--if it was elaborated on. It's kind of introduced and then dropped before Angel--or readers--can even give it another thought. Another few minor things that bothered me was that (1) I didn't buy the idea that Gunn would carjack someone just because they were honking at him, (2) the "snake lady" twist at the end was really contrived and not built up to at all, and (3) this isn't the fault of the story at all, but the last page gives the idea that there's going to be a continuation, but... the comic was cancelled by Dark Horse after this series. Thank God IDW picked it up. 7/10

The Perfect End to a Perfect Mess

It seems that whenever Angel isn't leaping out of the woodwork to slaughter the bad guys, the bad guys line up to leap out of the woodwork at him. Small wonder the vampire with a soul is as broody as he is. Take this night. Angel has to do some serious carjacking to break the truth out of a really ugly gang of Kryll demons. Which truth we never quite find out, because Angel finds a child in the car's trunk and takes a time out to return young Jacob to his father. On his way back, Angel finds himself waylaid by a beautiful but green Silthe, then by a truly oversized fire creature. Think that's enough. Stay tuned, the knight from nowhere with the sword from hell is right behind them. Even with Wesley, Gunn, and Cordelia working overtime they are barely able to discover that someone new has moved into town. Someone who thinks Angel has something that belongs to him. A strange Chinese symbol finally gives Angel the clue he needs. However, all that does is help him jump out of the frying pan and into the holy water. Our uncapped crusader may finally have met his match.Brett Matthews and Joss Whedon cooperated on the story, which is a perfect essay in perpetual action. This is the first time I have had a close look at Mel Rubi's pencil style, which, in combination with Chris Dreier's inking makes this illustrated paperback well worth the price of admission. The last section of the book is a set of Rubi's sketches, with commentary by Scott Alie and Brett Matthews. The reason for their enthusiasm will quickly become obvious. I predict that you will want to track down more of his work.